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First, according to Economic Policy Journal, the taxes for Obamacare are already double what was originally estimated.

The Joint Committee on Taxation recently released a 96 page report on the tax provisions associated with Affordable Care Act. The report describes the 21 tax increases included in Obamacare, totaling $1.058 trillion – a steep increase from initial assessment,accordingto the Tax Prof Blog. The summer 2012 estimate is nearly twice the $569 billion estimate produced at the time of the passage of the law in March 2010.

OK, so no one is shocked, whatever.

In other news, the standards for this great new health care system that is now going to cost at least twice as much as originally expected are not being set very high. The Washington Examiner is reporting that Henry Chao (an Obamacare official at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services) has said “Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience.” Full quote:

“The time for debating about the size of text on the screen or the color or is it a world-class user experience, that’s what we used to talk about two years ago,” Henry Chao, an official at the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services who is overseeing the technology of the exchanges said at a recent conference. “Let’s just make sure it’s not a third-world experience.”

So that sounds great. Honestly, anyone with any sense would know that any service that the government provides is going to be sub-par compared to the private market, but it is a little surprising to see the members of the project to be setting expectations so low. We’ve all heard the stories of the death panels, government decisions on who gets surgeries, shortage of doctors, etc. and they really don’t seem that far fetched when you look at it with this mindset.